Hermes and Athena
by El loopy
Summary: Turns out Hermes and Athena would make a great team. Set during and post season 7. Could be read as slightly Eli x Alicia. Oneshot.


**A/N Inspired by Stephen Fry's 'Mythos'. Not entirely canon but set somewhere around 7x18 and then post the final season.**

* * *

Hermes and Athena

When Eli was a young boy his school had seen fit to teach them about the Ancient Greeks. This would, in later years, be embellished upon in an artfully entitled 'classical education'. Apparently a 'classical education' was important. He'd personally never found a use for it. Dead languages, he thought, were dead for a reason. Nevertheless, he'd found himself, as a boy, digging up a worn dog-eared copy of Ancient Greek myths and legends. Language was one thing; fiction was another. A fiction to tell a truth? That was tantalising. He had devoured it. All the grisly details. The lust and anger and revenge. The poor choices and even worse consequences. All the qualities, he later realised, that were key elements in his favourite horror movies.

He still had the book. He took it out for a re-read occasionally.

Mount Olympus was one giant cesspool of political scandal. He hadn't known as a young school child what his future job would be, but he did consider the book a subconscious influence. Those gods had certainly needed the best campaign manager, and what was Eli if not the best? Even so, could he have navigated the tricky relationship that was Hera and Zeus' marriage? Kept Zeus' eye from wandering, covering up what he couldn't prevent? Could he have spun Hera's bloody revenge into a devoted wife's concern? It would have been a challenge. Eli liked a challenge.

* * *

Alicia, as usual, was out when Eli stepped into her office, but that had never stopped him before. If he was honest with himself, he'd admit that he deliberately came by when she was absent, and for one simple reason. With a contented sigh Eli sat on the office sofa.

Eli liked Alicia's couch. Not the one in her home, the one in her office. It wasn't the couch itself or even the office, those two had changed over time. It was just her having a couch in her office again. Nice and circular. Back to the start, to a simpler time, before Governorships and Grand Jury hearings.

Before plate-throwing.

Before blood on a courtroom floor.

The old partner…whatsername…Luca was giving him an odd look through the glass as she passed. Determined that she wouldn't ruin this very small apportioned time in his oasis Eli gave her a sharp nod before easing himself around into a more horizontal position, cushions pressing firmly against his back and elbows, hands folded over his stomach. Comfortable. Grounded. A small smile broke his lips, guileless and unintentional. His eyes slipped shut and he allowed himself the moment of peace. Of knowing forgiveness.

Of being safe.

It was a brief respite.

The first errant, work-related thought floated across his mind like a dandelion seed. Eli swiped at it, but it merely swirled with the eddies of air current and circled right back around to him. He swatted more forcefully but now there were hundreds of the things, sticking to his suit, clouding his vision. Eli opened his eyes with an unimpressed crease between his brows. Very well then, if he couldn't sleep…His hand dangled off the edge of the sofa and fished for the tell-tale crinkle of plastic. Brushing the celebratory bottle of alcohol for the bigger, brand new office (again!) out of the way by touch (and the worrying side thought that maybe Alicia was drinking too much and he shouldn't encourage it), he curled his fingers around the soft paperback, tugging it free. If he couldn't sleep he would read. It had been a little while since he'd last read these old favourites and in such unknown and dangerous territory as he was, he could use something familiar.

* * *

At some point Alicia must have returned.

"Hey!" Eli yelped as his book was plucked unceremoniously from his hands, with all the skill of a mother used to confiscating items by stealth.

"Greek Myths and Legends?" she read the title out with a questioning eyebrow raised. Eli found himself pouting defensively.

"What? What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing. Just not the sort of book I guess I thought you read."

Her tone was weary, and even upside down she looked tired.

"It's an old favourite. Bad day?" Concern was a relatively new emotion for him. He wasn't sure how well he wore it.

Alicia sighed and dropped her things at her desk, still carrying his book, much to his unease.

"Not great." He heard her chair creak (creak, not fall over. +1 to the new office) but he couldn't see her from his spot so sat up (-1 for inconvenience, although the sofa could be moved…) Alicia was watching him cautiously.

"What?" Again he sounded defensive. He needed to watch that.

"Why are you here Eli?"

"I…just…" Suddenly his reasons seemed wholly inadequate.

"I'm not changing my mind you know." He didn't know what she wasn't going to change her mind about, but fire flashed in her eyes and his hands jumped into palms up placating (surrendering?)

"I wasn't going to…I just…" he reached down and presented the bottle. Her eyebrows hiked.

"You didn't sit here and wait for me for that…What's going on Eli?"

The campaign manager placed the bottle back on the floor, looking sheepish.

"I needed a place to hide."

"Hide?"

"Yes, hide. I know this is your office and your place of work, but everything's been so chaotic recently, and loud, with subpoenas and the FBI and choices and its very…" his ramble cut out in an exhale of breath, "restful here. With you," he added as an afterthought and then thought he should retract it, but it was too late, so he pretended he had meant to say it, which he had. He felt so vulnerable with her now, so exposed. He was forgiven, so she said, but he still felt the backlash of her hurt like a bruise. Too tender to even pass his fingers over.

Alicia smiled. It was a nice smile. A genuine smile.

"Okay." She reached for her phone. "I've got some work to do so I'm ordering take out. Want some?"

The offer took him off-guard in the nicest way. His smile echoed hers, beaming and warm.

"Yes. Yes, I would."

Was this fullness in his chest what friendship felt like?

_Love_, Marissa's voice whispered, but he brushed it off.

"Here," Alicia tossed his book back and he caught it with jerky reflexes. "Keep yourself busy until it arrives."

* * *

It was…wonderful. Lying there on her sofa, listening to the clack and tap as she did lawyer stuff (everyone in a glass box and he still couldn't swear to what they actually _did _all day when not in court), and him reading his book. He felt calm. Peaceful. Some of that old Eli settling back into place. For a single, brief instant he dared wonder what Peter would think of this, but it shattered his calm, so he twisted it into a tiny shape and blew it away.

* * *

"So," Alicia dropped her fork back into the container on her lap and turned to Eli. "Why Greek myths?"

The campaign manager was thrown by her question. They'd mostly been eating in silence, on the sofa of all places, his offering poured into glasses close to hand. He hadn't expected her to collapse herself onto the seat next to him as she had handed him the takeout.

"Well…" came the nervous, smiling, stuttering start, that only select females in his life managed to cause, "The gods of Greek myth are everything we are, all our best and worst bits amplified." He sounded like he was making a speech. He dropped his hands and tried to keep them still. "They are the creation of man needing to explain the world and emotions and life. They are very relatable, the gods. Every scandal is a political minefield and the consequences…the essence of cruel and unusual."

Alicia was smiling at him in that way of hers.

"You look positively giddy when you say cruel and unusual." He wasn't sure if it was a compliment or not. "So, come on then," she sat back and fixed him with a playful, semi-serious smile. "Who are we all?"

It was a screech of metal in his head.

"What?" he knew what she meant though and his stomach dropped.

"Eli," her tone was indulgent, faintly chastising, "the way you said they were relatable. You've obviously given us characters, so, who do you think we are?"

There was a beat as Eli examined the can of worms he seemed to have unwittingly opened. He didn't want to lie to her, not after the plate-throwing incident, so instead he ate another mouthful of food. At his silence Alicia rolled her eyes.

"C'mon. Play the game. I'll start. Peter is obviously Zeus." Eli nearly choked. The look she cut him was withering. "The unfaithful husband with the wandering eye? In a position of power. The consequences. Political _nightmare_. Hopefully Peter doesn't have illegitimate offspring all over Chicago, but they didn't have condoms then, right?"

"Right," Eli managed past a dry throat. He hoped she'd stop there but that would be too much to ask wouldn't it. Alicia had always enjoyed watching him squirm.

"Does that make me Hera then?" She was definitely mocking him, but the way she was staring off into the distance, with a slight frown on her forehead, he could tell the thought troubled her.

"No, not Hera. Never Hera." He hadn't meant to sound quite so convicted. Alicia turned her head back to him and curled her lips self-deprecatingly.

"No? Not the goddess of wives? Isn't that what you wanted to rehabilitate me as?"

Gold shook his head. "No. Hera was vengeful and vindictive. She threw her first born off Mount Olympus for being too ugly. You are not Hera."

Alicia waited for him to add more and when he wasn't forthcoming, she pressed.

"Who then?"

He was going to regret saying this. He should just get up and walk away. Refuse to answer…

"Athena."

This woman would be his downfall. When had she wrestled all his furious, obstinance from him and left him as this creature that could not refuse her?

"Athena?"

"The goddess of law and justice."

"Really?" Alicia looked more incredulous than impressed.

"Really. Athena was the grace, the tactics, the strategy and planning in the art of war. A contrast to the coercive, violent, bungling, aggressive way that David – er – Ares went about things."

Her lips twitched. She'd heard the comparison slip. It pleased her. Good. She smiled far too infrequently in his presence. Genuinely anyway. He had received his fair share of fake, polite smiles, usually followed by, _"What do you need, Eli?"_

"Athena," he added warming to his passion in the subject, "is a _warrior_." He proclaimed it with all due emphasis, wondering if he was trying to make Alicia believe him. There was a definite soap box air about it. "She is strong. Beautiful. Intelligent. Watching you argue a case is like watching her…_embodiment_ in the courtroom."

"You're going to make me blush Eli," she told him with a tease in her voice but a wariness in her face, and he thought he may have gone too far in expressing his regard. "If you feel so strongly about it," _this, _he heard, _me,_ "why didn't you promote Alicia Florrick–Athena as my rehabilitation?" This conversation was very…borderline. It felt dangerous. Much more dangerous than any other they'd had, sat around her table late at night, sharing a bottle, talking of strategy or life. When he'd confessed and she'd thrown him out with the accompaniment of smashing crockery, the ache had been unbearable. The loss was like nothing he had ever experienced. That had been a dangerous conversation but not like this. This felt like he was walking on a very thin line between friend (friend? Yes, friend…) and _something else_. In fact, once upon a time, he'd felt this very same caution as he'd walked the line with her between a relationship of the personal and professional. At some point she'd tugged him over, he wouldn't be able to put his finger on when. The old Alicia would have kept them well back from this new line they currently walked. This new Alicia liked to push things, liked to see what would happen. That meant _he_ had to stay sensible, even if he was curious, so…

He chose his words carefully.

"Because what I see and what the public want to see are not always the same thing."

She nodded once and tossed her head with a cynical chuckle.

"Right. Of course."

"Also," he couldn't help but add, if only to steer away from the line, "Athena was…chaste."

"Chaste?" The laugh in her voice; he couldn't tell if it was directed at herself or him. "You mean she didn't have an affair with her boss and wasn't sleeping with her investigator?"

Blunt Alicia. Yes, he flinched. He couldn't help it. It was what she'd been after any way.

"More…she didn't have a husband or kids."

"Ah," Alicia grinned, lifting her glass to her lips wickedly. "Right." At him. Definitely laughing at him. "So, who are you Eli?"

He'd been dreading her asking that.

"Me? Oh, I didn't…" he tapered off. She could sense a lie. Best not to speak at all.

Alicia's expression was positively mischievous, her tone provocative as she chirped, "No?" with a falsetto voice and a fake disappointed air. "Not playing? All right, I'll guess." She leaned back into the sofa corner, better to fully examine him, crossing her long legs in a languorous fashion. Eli's eyes skittered away, and he sat up straighter to prevent himself shrinking back. He felt exposed. Alicia was tapping a manicured finger against her lips, unsmiling. "Hmmm… maybe one of those goat-like creatures, with the human head and top half…"

"A Satyr?" his voice pitched in disgust, nose crinkled, "You think I'm a Satyr?"

She was grinning at him, enjoying her fun, and he knew she was teasing but it…he was disappointed. Even as they'd played the stupid game, he'd hoped that she'd guess what he'd picked for himself (because of course he had), or at least given him a god of some description, an equal to herself. It was stupid to be disappointed by such silliness. Stupid to feel hurt by it (hurt, yes, hurt, how ridiculous), but he was.

"Right, good, yes, of course." He forced a smile. "Well, I better be going. You've got work to do and I…" he got to his feet as he spoke but was halted by a hand on his arm, the grip light, yet insistent.

"Hey, Eli," her face was concerned, "I was just joking." The forced smile stayed pasted on. He needed to reassure her so she would let him go. After all the damage he'd put her through he had no right to be so petty.

"It's fine. A Satyr. Ha ha. Yes. I can see it." The expression of worry didn't leave her face, worry that she'd upset him. "Alicia, its fine," he tried more brusquely. "A silly game. I really do have to go."

Hesitantly her hand loosened its grips and she dropped it away, head still tilted at him. It was the work of a moment to deposit his takeout in the bin and collect his things. His touch faltered on the book, but he dropped it in the plastic bag, maybe with a little less care than usual. She still hadn't said a word, just remained on the couch, watching.

"Goodbye Alicia." He was half out the door when she spoke.

"Eli," her tone made him pause and turn. She'd stood up, hands holding her glass and the bottle, the present he'd brought her. "I really was joking. I'd like to change my answer."

"Alicia, its nothing," he tried to scoff and brush it off.

"You're Hermes."

Warmth blossomed in his chest. His protests dissolved in an instant.

"Really?" Not incredulous this time, barely breathed, voice a little unsteady and her smile was so gentle it took the rest of his breath.

"Really," she nodded, her voice taking on its own strength of proclamation, but quietly, forcefully, trying to make him believe her. "The messenger of the gods. The god of liars, eloquence and wit. Sound familiar?" At his surprised look she tilted her head. "I had to study Greek Mythology too."

He knew he was grinning like a fool, but he couldn't care too much.

"Yes," he bobbed his head a little bashful, still smiling. "Thank you. Alicia."

"You're welcome." Her soft smile stayed with him out the building.

* * *

"Athena? Really?" Marissa spoke around her mouthful of food, fingers plucking at the next piece. Eli was already regretting letting his daughter in on his conversation with Alicia. She tilted her head and chewed thoughtfully. "I guess I can see that," she popped the next cheesy nacho in her mouth as Gold eyed the plate in ill-disguised disgust. Who was this child he had raised that she could eat that? "Quit the looks Dad. I'm an adult, I can eat what I like."

Eli jerked in surprise at being noticed.

"I didn't say a word."

Marissa was eyeing him in a concentrated way that made him wary. She'd inherited that from him. It seemed unnatural that she could use it against him…unjust…

"Why not Aphrodite? Why Athena?"

"Aphrodite? Please," he scoffed in response. "That's what you call a woman in a ham-fisted attempt at seduction." Marissa was grinning at him knowingly.

"And this wasn't ham-fisted?"

"It wasn't a seduction," he countered.

"Good to know."

Eli lapsed into silence. He didn't care for her tone. It sounded too much like her mother's.

"Besides, Alicia is nothing like Aphrodite," he muttered. Except for the stuff that those emails said she did with Will and probably with Jason…stop thinking Eli. Marissa's face showed she was thinking the same, before she pulled out her phone and gave him a blessed few moments relief.

"Did you know that Athena is a goddess of love too?" Her question startled him out of his thoughts, his response automatic.

"No, she isn't."

"Actually, she is," Marissa was scrolling through her phone. "A less obvious love than Aphrodite's, less superficial. More about character than physical attraction…"

"Are you on Chum Hum?" he snapped irately. "You can't believe everything posted on there."

Marissa just kept scrolling, a little curl at the corner of her lips that was infuriating.

"Hey Dad?"

"What?" he snapped. She ignored the ill-temper.

"You said you were Hermes, right?"

"_She_ said I was Hermes, Alicia did." That knowing little smirk again.

"Whatever. You should see this."

She spun her phone around and presented him with what was on the screen. Eli felt something bubble in his chest as he looked at the article, the pictures solidifying into his memory.

"Turns out you two are good together."

His eyes left the phone to meet Marissa's smiling ones. On the screen was a bust with Hermes' face on one side and Athena's on another. Underneath there was another picture showing the gods side by side, arms linked. A Hermathena.

"Both embody clever intelligence needed for a winning strategy." Marissa read unnecessarily. "It is natural to see these two together." She grinned at her Dad. The cogs were whirring in his head so fast she could practically hear them. There was the tell-tale flicker at the corner of his eye, the unfocused gaze, the twist of his mouth. Eli Gold was scheming.

"What? What's the idea?" she pried, adding, "Do you have a _cunning_ plan?", with part mockery, part curiosity.

Eli's gaze snapped to her. "Never you mind." He snatched the phone out of Marissa's hand before she could protest.

"You're welcome," she uttered sassily.

He wasn't listening. The words 'donations' and 'divert' were just barely distinguishable in the flow of inaudible mutterings, along with 'Alicia'.

Marissa tucked her chin on her hand and watched him with an indulgent pity.

"One day you'll admit you're in love with her."

"Shusssh!" Eli hissed, flapping one hand, eyes glued to the phone. Marissa rolled her eyes while he tapped at the screen.

"Need some help?" she asked cheekily when it was clear he was struggling to get what he wanted.

Eli raised an irate gaze to her, jabbing the phone frustratedly in her face.

"How do you download this thing?"

* * *

He printed off the article. He kept it folded up inside the book. A reminder of their friendship, but also a prompt for when the time was right.

The trial ended. Time passed. They were once again sat at her kitchen island; the dining table no longer, ever, safe, no matter how much time had gone.

"I have something to discuss with you."

He had on his serious face and she paused in her pizza eating with a raised eyebrow. "Uh oh."

One of his hands raised.

"Wait, just…wait."

He put the book on the table and pulled out the article from between the pages. Alicia looked indulgent.

"Eli, you want to discuss this again?"

He shook his head. "Not the book, this." He tapped the piece of paper and slid it across the counter with one finger. Ever the lawyer, Alicia dropped the pizza and wiped her fingers before picking up the paper.

"Eli…what is this?"

He was sat at the island grinning like an excited schoolboy.

"It's a web page about how great a team Hermes and Athena make, about how their qualities complement each other…"

Alicia was skeptical. "You know we're not really Greek gods Eli…"

"I know, I know." He waved her protest away. "It's the qualities, the making of a great team, that I wanted you to see."

Alicia lowered the paper warily. "What's this about Eli?"

He was opposite her, barely able to contain his enthusiasm and she got a sense of déjà vu. It had been different times, different places, but always _this_ Eli. It had been a while since she'd seen him like this. With effort he stilled himself to deliver his point.

"Join me."

"In what?"

He paused dramatically.

"Running for State Senator."

"We've tried this before," she sighed and placed the article back on the table where his hand suddenly covered her own, pressing it to the paper. She froze in surprise, eyes flying to his, a warning on her lips, but he was just looking at her in that zealous, overexcited way of his, leaning towards her. He hadn't even noticed what he'd done, so she relaxed and allowed it.

"It has never just been us," he uttered with conviction. Alicia tilted her head in a question. He barrelled on. "It was you and John and me and Peter and crossed wires and conflicting interests. This time it will be just you and me. Athena and Hermes. No Peter. None of the others. No children. This time you _will_ be Athena. I will _make_ you Athena."

He paused; passionate, eloquent speech exhausted. Hermes indeed. He'd clearly been thinking on this a long time. Alicia gave a little smile.

"What do you think?" He was nervous again now, voice with that barely audible waver, brow creased in worry. Alicia slipped her hand out from under his, startling him a little and let her smile widen.

"Will it be fun?"

Eli grinned broadly back at her. "It's you and me, Alicia."

Slowly she picked up her glass, drawing out her examination of him, making him wait, which he did patiently because he knew her game by now. Even so, he still squirmed a little. Fun. She could use some fun.

"Okay," Alicia grinned.

His face brightened.

"Really?"

"Yes. Let's do it."

* * *

**A/N: Images mentioned are an engraving of Hermathena published in L'Ermatena by Michele Arditi (1816) and a Hermathena emblem from Symbolicarum quaestionum by Achille Bocchi (1574)**


End file.
